Thank you, I am feel bad not contributing to the household expenses.
Your right, we are blessed to be alive. I wish there was a way to earn more money
I Can no longer drive due to loss of left perfirial vision, I wlk just about everywhere, and depend on my family to drive me places. I tried to work a retail job last year, but was fired do to overage in my cash drawer. I still have my plesant customer serive skills, but not sure how confident I am in having a new job. and the driving thing, I sold my car~
How can we contribute to society?
I was on phenobarb for the first 8 months after surgery,, no seizure acitivity~ YAY
So interesting to read this thread! Thanks, Mary, for starting it, and I'm sorry for your loss of smell.
I had a clipping for an aneurysm (unruptured? surgeon says he saw no blood, but I was alerted to aneurysm by stroke-type symptoms, inc. lightning-strike headache, temporary loss of speech, certain cognition interrupts) in the Circle of Willis, anterior communicating artery, almost five years ago. I had a normal sense of smell for some weeks afterward, but then the whole world smelled strangely like (I know this is weird) a mix of oily cinnamon and fish. Thank God, it wasn't really a strong smell, but in time it became the only (phantom) thing I could smell. Months later, that weirdness lifted, and I briefly enjoyed a returned but less acute real sense of smell, which was incredibly reassuring and sweet... until it was replaced by another phantom odor, just kind of a blah smell like old laundry at a distance. Then again, my sense of smell returned, in full range but still fainter... and then it just all but winked out.
Today I can hold a cup of coffee to my nose and just barely make out something different happening. Could almost be wishful thinking? I can sometimes get odd whiffs of verifiable high-note odors, but there's no predictability to it. No midrange or "deep" smells at all. If there's bacon in the fry pan, I only know it by sight. If there's something burning on the stove, and my back's turned, I'm in trouble! On the upside, I had to clean out the septic tank filter the other day, and as far as my nose was concerned, I might have been in my office shuffling papers.
Last year, when the sense of smell winked out, a number of odd neuro things occurred at the same time: loss of feeling/phantom tingling on my shins and shoulder blades (!?), etc. (One shoulder blade had been odd since the surgery, but at the same time as smell winked out, all these other spots flared up so violently they at first worried about MS.) I had some scans done, and brought all my scans since the surgery to a neurologist, who pointed out the path of scarring from the operation -- the inevitable injury to the brain caused by going in there to clip, I guess -- and encephalomalacia along that path. All of this had obviously affected the olfactory nerve, and the gradual settling in of scarring and injured tissues either recovering or dying explained the changes over time.
He didn't promise recovery of smell. The trend has obviously been downward; however, the fact that any smell remains could imply the faintest hope of some eventual rewiring. As for the other symptoms, he said there was no obvious connection between the areas of the brain scarred by the surgery (and injured by the aneurysm) and other parts of my body... but nothing to say or do about it in any case. The encephalomalacia didn't seem to be progressing, and -- as I read in these wonderful and generous forums - many of us have some eccentric, not-directly-explainable post-surgical phenomena. I'm really lucky mine are so minimal.
It has taken a loooong time for my brain to feel "normal" -- as nimble and clear, creatively, behaviorally and emotionally, as I remember it feeling before the surgery -- and I think US medicine really fails to allow for subtle cognitive and perceptual changes after aneurysm surgery. But at last I feel like myself again... okay, minus the sense of smell and with weird tingling shins and shoulders, but hey! What do I want at 57, anyway? Missing a sense of smell has made me more aware of all the senses and blessings I do still have, not to mention the life I still enjoy, so I'm okay with that. Wishing you patience and health and joy in your recovery,
Bill
Does this also effect everyone’s sense of taste? I get the weird smells…some makng me feel nauseous. But mostly all smells are very faint…and my taste…the same. Am thinking we need to just enjoy different textures…let that sense become more acute.
I had brain surgery on 2011 to clip an aneurysm(non ruptured) the Surgeon couldn’t finish the operation because it was too close to my optical nerve and he said I could have lost my eyesight if he continued.after the operation I lost my sense of smell and taste. I was devastated because I love to cook and I’m a foodie. I don’t know how I do it but I still cook and everyone tells me it’s good . I’m 77 years now so I guess I had enough experience at it. The only think I can still taste is salty,sweet,sour and bitteri guess because those taste buds are on your tongue. I still pray that maybe someday before I die that maybe it will come back, but I’m not holding my breath. It’s terrible having to spend the last few years of your life not enjoying food. A few days after my brain surgery I had my aneurysm coiled. I want to wish all of you lots of good luck, maybe in time yours will return. They told me that if I didn’t get it back in 18 months I would not get it back after telling me that the nerves stretched and they would return. I want to wish all of you lots of good luck you all seem to be young so maybe there’s a chance that yours my return.
Also my right shoulder doesn’t feel right either and I have tingling down my arm to my hand . My doctor can’t seem to find out why, now I’m thinking maybe it is from the operation.
Hi…I am almost 70…and many on here are also. My smell, taste have diminished. .am so disappointed when I get a taste of something I really used to just love. Was your operation on the right side? Mine was and my neck, and shoulder hurt…more sometimes than others… maybe try heat packs.
I have that too. I thought no one else did have that.
Yes Susan,it was on the right side.
Hi Isabel, I have tingling "residual" from the brain surgery 10 years ago. Doc told me I just "have to learn to live with it". I'm now diabetic as well. Living with it indeed! :)